"Seminar explores educating ESL students" : The Chalkboard : Blogs : News-Record.com : Greensboro, North Carolina

Seminar explores educating ESL students

ESL stands for English as a Second Language. Guilford County Schools has somewhere around 4,800 students whose first language is not English. These students come from about 100 countries and speak more than 80 languages (it might be more than 90 languages this year). The majority speak Spanish.

UNCG is hosting a seminar on April 4 to address the issue of how to help these students. Here is a list of speakers:

• Jillian Haeseler, assistant professor of linguistics at Greensboro College. She will open the discussion with "Classrooms without Borders: Identity, Culture in Second Language Learning and Teaching."
• Micheline Chalhoub-Deville, professor of educational research methodology in the UNCG School of Education. Chalhoub-Deville will discuss "Academic English language learning testing in grades K-12."
• H. Nolo Martinez, assistant director for research and outreach at the Center for New North Carolinians. Martinez will consider the roles and responsibilities of colleges and universities in educating diverse student populations.

The district provides services to these students in their schools. Some schools now have interpreters to help work with parents as well.

But some school systems have invested more, starting "welcome centers" to help these students learn English and adjust more quickly. Guilford officials have talked about it in recent years, but have not started a center.

Should they?

Comments (24)

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debora said:

I have heard talk of a centralized school for ESL students, which sounds great, but how do we pay for it. The transportation cost would be outstanding and many of these students are FRL also, so transportation is an issue. Would it cost less to transport and centralize these students than pay for esol teachers in each school- not to mention the cost that cannot be measured and that is children that do not learn and the burden they put on society, plus tutoring etc, etc. Interesting things to think about.

Posted on March 2, 2006 2:22 PM

Statistics said:

I guess they will just transfer more money out of the Jamestown Middle School bond fund like they did for the Smith HS project. Yes classes in each school would be cheaper but then you couldn't get these students who lower the testing scores isolated from the other test numbers. It's always about the numbers.

Posted on March 2, 2006 4:49 PM

MoreThoughts said:

not to mention are you educating children of ILLEGAL immigrants in some cases? but is it the children's fault they are victims of this?

Posted on March 3, 2006 6:43 AM

Espanol said:

If you put them all together they will not learn English.

Whats the big deal? After 3 months these kids can most of the time speak better than some Americans,

Sorry, I think there is too much BS with this subject.

Posted on March 3, 2006 12:14 PM

Stormy said:

Espanol,

If these kids that are ESL speak better than most Americans in three months, what does that say about our schools? Does that mean that these ESL kids are smarter than native-born kids? Does that mean that they learn faster? How do you account for the 3-month learners? That truly is an amazing thing. Help us understand how it is possible in your view?

Posted on March 3, 2006 5:28 PM

That reminds me of another question. If they can learn to speak better in three months, why wouldn't you put them together? It would seem that they would learn faster and better together than being slowed-down by native-born kids. I'm not sure I understand how that works.

Posted on March 3, 2006 5:30 PM

mrproduce

said:

Espanol, you are right about the kids speaking English quickly.

We have a fairly sizeable group of Hispanic's in our congregation and offer interpreter services through headsets at services for adults. In the Youth Services no such is needed,their english is fine. Same for the very young children in Children's Church. They certainly speak english well. It is only the Adults who have a problem with understanding.

Posted on March 3, 2006 5:31 PM

Espanhol said:

Hang on I did say some, not most, not all. Maybe that was wrong but in most places in the world foreigners are placed in any class, they dont speak the language and three months later they are off and running. There are too many excuses here by GCS. They use it as an excuse and I dont believe it. Back to what I said if you stick them all together then they wont learn.
I am not intending to criticise anyone but GCS.

Posted on March 3, 2006 6:04 PM

Thanks Mr. Prod.

Posted on March 3, 2006 6:07 PM

Nope, you said "After 3 months these kids can most of the time speak better than some Americans." You didn't say some. The implication was that it was at least most.

Trust me, but there isn't much I agree with what GCS does, but let's get the facts straight here before we dismiss something out of hand. It seems to me that it wouldn't be a bad idea to centralize these kids for a short period (3 months?) and to focus language skills for these students, then mainstream them when they are up to speed. We don't need any more distractions in our regular classes for students that want to learn. There are enough already.

Posted on March 3, 2006 7:10 PM

Stormy, have you ever lived in another country?
DO you speak another language?

If you do then argue the point with me if not..............

Posted on March 3, 2006 8:30 PM

I wasn't aware that a person had to have qualifications to participate in a discusison on this board. I'll make note of it. Please post the requirements for having a discussion with you next time before you state an opinion.

Posted on March 4, 2006 7:41 AM

To say all most Americans was wrong. I should of said "as good as" . There you go. Having said that and back to the point Mexican parents dont speak English largely because they live and work with other Mexicans.
So, if you put new Mexicans into a "welcome centers" these children will not learn English there for the same reasons.
Hence my argument, just throw them in a class with other children and after three months they are off and running. If GCS take this attitude (kids are sponges) very naturally then it is not a problem.
Instead as usual they want to label them as a problem. End of story.

By the way Stormy, I am from Venezuela and have been fortunate to have lived in Germany, France and now the US. My children have been brought up in all of these countries. I cant believe what I see here in GC.

Posted on March 4, 2006 8:02 AM

OUCH said:

Clarification here. Time out.

Espanhol said "MOST of the TIME" not "MOST of the kids" these kids can "most of the time speak better than SOME Americans. When you hear how the AMERICAN children speak in our schools, on TV and on the news, I have to agree 100% with Espanhol.

Children born and raised here still say "had went", "he don't know", "he be good", and our own past county commissioner chair "he had WROTE". It's on tape. At least a child trying to learn English when it is not their native language has an excuse. What is the excuse for so many American children not using proper English grammar. It's part of the cultural diversity movement. That won't help when you go on a job interview and say "yeah, un ha", "what you say?"

OUCH, my ears are hurting.

Posted on March 4, 2006 1:49 PM

That wasnt really might point.
Point is that GCS always use Foreign students as a reason why results are down. Difficult to teach etc tec.
3 months after arriving they fit in. They should not be used by GCS as an excuse.

Posted on March 4, 2006 2:14 PM

Barbara Ann said:

Children do pick up on the oral language quickly. The problem comes in comprehension of the written language in testing. It lowers the scores of the school. It hurts the "numbers".

Currently elementary school children who are in ESOL are exempted from taking EOG reading tests. How long are they exempt from the testing system?

On a similar note, children who have learning disabilities are "read" the test. But how does this help them when they eventually have to read any lesson in any subject? How does it help to "read" them a math story problem even if they know the math? They will still eventually have to learn reading comprehension.

Another thing to think about....when the slow learners or ESOL students leave for their special class, they miss out on the lesson in their homeroom class. This puts them further behind in that subject.

Another problem is this. North Carolina has a huge number of hispanics. Some are here illegally. If this is the case, what do you do about educating their children? It is costing the American taxpayers money to educate children of illegal immigrants; money that could be spent on American children whose parents pay taxes.

It is not the children's fault. Do you just leave them at home, uneducated to become to future welfare cases to drain the system more?

How can we afford more special schools? We don't even have money to build the schools we do need and the future of that looks doubtful.

It's a complex problem and one that is very real in Guilford County and North Carolina.

Posted on March 4, 2006 4:02 PM

cheryl said:

changing the subject:
i am curious about this state mandate for smith which apparently is requiring gcs to move 300 kids out of that school and into a new facility.

i simply do not remember smith high being labelled such a poor performing school. its got to be better than andrews which is the 2nd lowest performing school in the entire state (vicinity of 7000 schools) and was given state assistance.

it seems that the state would have mandated andrews make more changes than smith. why would the state be tougher on smith which seems to be performing better than andrews, instead of requiring more help for andrews students?

has anyone seen this very specific state mandate for smith? has anyone seen anything published about this mandate? i heard a lot about andrews and the middle college, but absolutely remember nothing being reported about smith.

jennifer, if the n-r has published anything along these lines, or if you have any info, would you please post? many thanks

Posted on March 4, 2006 4:35 PM

"when the slow learners or ESOL students leave for their special class"

Are you saying that ESOL are slow learners?

Posted on March 4, 2006 5:37 PM

No I am saying children leave for ESOL, slow learners for special needs class, some children for speech, etc. It is a very disruptive day sometimes. The problem is when any child leaves for their special needs, they have to play catch up on other subjects/lesson when they return to class.

Even Advance Learners have this problem but they are expected to catch up and keep up with their daily work along with the AL work they do.

Posted on March 4, 2006 11:00 PM

Cheryl,

That is an interesting question about Smith. Could it have to do with the violence?

Also just on Channel 10 Fox News tonight. They had a list of schools Judge Manning threatened to close. Smith and Dudley were on the list locally.

Now how much money was spent on Dudley? One of the most expensive projects ever.

Would this be ironic if Dudley had to close?

What is going on here?

Posted on March 4, 2006 11:02 PM

Bus Driver said:

Doesn't Deena's kid go to Dudley? If so, then yes, I would love to see it close and have her son bused to Northwest against his will, just like she did to the Parkview kids and the others.

Does she even live in the Dudley district? How can one kid go to Page and one to Dudley? Must have been a trade-off somewhere.

Posted on March 5, 2006 8:42 AM

The article in today's paper said that the schools with less than 55% passing EOG's for 5 years in a row including this year were in danger of having to close. The judge said it was poor leadership through the principals and superintendants, not for lack of money. I see the writing on the wall for some of these kids. It is easier to move them around than educate them. Slip and slide the attendance lines (see HP for example) and then miracles happen and 70% pass! The kids that didn't pass are still they but they are hidden by the numbers!

Posted on March 5, 2006 9:07 AM

Busemfordiversity's sake said:

Lets bus Dudley to Northwest.

Smith with Ragsdale.

Posted on March 5, 2006 5:11 PM

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